* Photo: Raymond Biesinger * Urban astro-nerds, rejoice! The smog and lights of the city will obscure your view of the heavens no more. And your star photography will twinkle. Now you can go online to access high-quality scopes at dark-sky sites worldwide and order them to take photos for you — cheaply or for free, and at decent resolution. It may take some preparation, but even if the results aren't exactly Hubble-icious, there's something out-of-this-world about playing astronomer for a night.
Bradford Robotic Telescope
www.Telescope.org
Telescope 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain
Location Tenerife, Canary Islands
Field of view From the north celestial pole to 52 degrees south
Pictures back in Days, sometimes weeks
Results 1,056 x 1,027-pixel color or black-and-white JPEGs
Cost Free
Micro-Observatory
mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory
Telescope 6-inch-diameter Maksutov
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Amado, Arizona
Field of view Northern celestial hemisphere to 48 degrees south
Pictures back in Days, often overnight
Results 650 x 500-pixel black-and-white GIFs
Cost Free
Seeing in the Dark
www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/explore-the-sky
Telescope 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain
Location Mayhill, New Mexico
Field of view Northern celestial hemisphere to about 45 degrees south
Pictures back in Days to weeks
Results 512 x 512-pixel black-and-white JPEGs
Cost Free
Slooh
www.slooh.com
Telescope Two 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrains — one for planets, the other for deep space
Location Tenerife, Canary Islands, and Santiago, Chile
Field of view Northern and southern celestial hemispheres
Pictures back in Seconds
Results 800 x 600-pixel color JPEGs
Cost $100 per year for unlimited images
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